Nicholas Hytner has grown the National Theatre's audience while promoting artistic development. His two-front success is worth studying.Nicholas Hytner has grown the National Theatre's audie…
The New York Musical Theater Festival's first week offered numerous works in progress, with a couple of familiar names, Austen and Gatsby, showing the most promise.
The Soka Performing Arts Center, which opens Saturday night in Aliso Viejo, is a new acoustical jewel by star acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota. Mark Swed reports on a dress rehearsal by the Pacif…
Christine Lakin, left, and Beth Malone star onstage in "œThe Breakup Notebook." Everyone who's ever been dumped " and doesn't that include all of us? " is going to…
The lure of a TV show may have improved standards among young comics, but is careerism killing off the crazy and exceptional?It appears there's something of a quiet consensus this year that …
Sweat, swearing, singing " and Dave TV's best joke of the fringe. But I can't see Nick Helm on Live at the Apollo …After leaving for Nick Helm's show in a rush, I forgot my notepad. As a r…
Topical material is creeping back on the agenda. Even Tom Rosenthal is getting political " in a gentle sort of wayOne of the eeriest things about the dearth of politics on the fringe these l…
Can you stop yourself looking at your watch at a comedy gig " and can any of Edinburgh 2011's acts keep going long enough?In the pub last night, in between discussions over the price of Pero…
With thousands of shows at the fringe it's hard to know where to start. Should you follow the recommendations of performers, your pals or just go it alone?If they're not struck with a desire…
Comics cross the line into real life-coaching with tips for gents on undoing bra straps and advice for ladies on keeping their hats onThe increasing popularity of self-help and life-coaching…
Whether it's stripping off or throwing bread, sometimes the only way to respond to an interactive show is to embrace the sillinessFew things chill my blood like the sight of the word "intera…
Magic acts are reinventing the genre with show-and-tells, Facebook mind-reading and a 'young Jack Dee in a dragon suit'Magic shows are benefiting from the recent revival of variety " there s…
What with the heckling, non-sequiturs and scatological glee, a roomful of over-excited kids is more like a group of drunk adultsIn the past few years, the children's section of the fringe pr…
In Comic Strip, Asher Treleaven and Gypsy Wood mix standup with striptease to strike a blow against censorshipComedy and striptease: are they natural partners? We're not used to thinking of …
When it covers anything from standup to striptease, isn't it time the Edinburgh Comedy awards introduced some categories?Thirty-one shows into the Fringe and I find myself asking the same ol…
We enjoy the comedy of failure and self-deprecation " so find it hard to believe attractive comics could share our insecuritiesWhen you're watching someone on stage for an hour, particularly…
ReVision Theatre in Asbur Park will present The Break-Up Notebook: The Lesbian Musical, September 8-25. The production will be directed by Peter Schneider, with musical direction by Aaron Ga…
Spotlights crashing to the stage, unrehearsed comedians ... how much bungling can we bear when we're paying a tenner a ticket?Two nights ago, I and tens of other people looked on and did not…
